Unjust Steward

Unjust Steward January 9, 2015

Douglas Oakman’s Jesus, Debt, and the Lord’s Prayer spends an inordinate amount of space on source-critical questions concerning the Lord’s prayer. His claim that “Jesus was attempting to mitigate the situation of the indebted (‘sinner’) by promoting the subversion of the imperial tax system in Galilee” (100) is unconvincing. His claim that “Jesus’ historical activity was essentially about politics, and the restructuring of society, and not about religion or theology” (117) implies the very dualism that he seems intent on overcoming. We should rather say that Jesus’ mission was political and announced a restructuring of society (read the Magnificat if you doubt this!) because His mission was religious and theological.

Along the way, Oakman’s description of economic conditions in Galilee is valuable, especially in the way it helps explain Jesus’ parables. He thinks to ask, for example, what sort of social and economic situation is implied by the “parable of the unjust steward” (Luke 16:1-8). He concludes that “the best assumption . . . would seem to be that the parable envisions a man who owns whole villages. These tenant villages, through representatives, pay a yearly produce rent on their agricultural lands. The rich man, then, sells these goods (oil and wheat would be negotiable) and/or provisions his own household” (37).

This makes the steward’s actions “self-evidence,” Oakman says: “Through the mechanism of releasing debtors from their obligations, the steward creates some positive alternatives for himself. Yet it cannot be overlooked that there is, from the viewpoint of the dominant culture, injustice involved. . . . Why does Jesus then praise the man? Is he siding with the oppressed peasantry against the rich? To do so would not change the dominant ethos of self-sufficiency that Jesus opposes in both the landlord class and the peasantry. No, the story would seem to be aimed at the rich themselves. . . . What is laudable about the steward’s behavior is his generosity (and with others’ goods!) – a generosity certainly motivated by self-interest, but with particularly salutary effects. This is a generosity that not only mitigates oppressive circumstances, but creates the basis for a new relationship to the peasantry. . . . a single-stranded relationship between exploitative elite and oppressed peasantry is modified by the addition of some new strands. . . the steward will no longer stand above the peasantry, but will be reduced to their level – otherwise, lower still!” (39). When he has relieved the debt-burden of the villages, they will receive him.

There is, however, a “religious and theological” overtone to the parable. Jesus says that the steward will be received into “eternal dwellings.” That suggests that he provides a model of the burden-breaking generosity that characterizes those who enter the kingdom. He is a son of this age, but his pursuit of self-interest through generosity shows a wisdom greater than the sons of light because he is a shrewd exemplification of the “impure” gift.


Browse Our Archives